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~ Besides, You Owe Me ~
~ Chapter 37 ~
"Mum?"
The woman froze.
Silence filled the hall. No one breathed a word and all eyes travelled from the young terrified looking girl to the frozen older woman on the floor.
"Mum?" Ichigo asked again in a shaky voice and she even dared to take a cautious step forward.
Sakura's shoulders were shaking now - she was crying. She was crying of fear that this was all a lie, just a sick dream - no nightmare - that her mind had conjured up to help for now but then crush her later when she would wake. What had she done to deserve this? What?
"Mum," Ichigo took yet another slow, careful step toward the woman.
Upon realising her scared mother's tears, she herself felt her own eyes well up. She couldn't hold back anymore and quickly closed the distance between them. She practically fell to her knees in front of the woman and brought her arms around her shoulders.
"Mum! Mum, please answer me! I'm here. It's okay!" Ichigo mumbled in to the woman's hair as she held on to her shaking form, tightly.
"But you've been gone for so long," Sakura sobbed squeezing her eyes shut trying not to see this horrible heartbreaking lie.
"I know, I know," Ichigo cooed and rocked her mother slightly attempting to calm her, it was what Sakura had done when Ichigo was younger, "But I'm here now. Look, Mum."
Sakura's face slowly turned up and to Ichigo's and her eyes slowly opened. Ichigo smiled warmly and Sakura sobbed loudly before throwing herself at her daughter.
"Ichigo, why did you leave us? Why didn't you call to tell me you were fine? Where did you go?" Sakura asked and although it was muffled due to Sakura's face being pressed in to Ichigo's shoulder, the daughter understood.
"Mum, I never wanted to leave you," Ichigo quickly glanced over to Kisshu who stood just a step forward from the rest of the crowd. He was just watching at the moment and luckily he made no reaction to that comment. She continued, "I just left for a little while - with a friend. I can a assure you that I was completely safe and not in any danger whatsoever. I would have loved to have been able to talk to you, I missed you so much but...the distance. I couldn't make any calls at all because of how far away home is from here. You really have no idea, Mum."
"No, I do," Sakura whispered. Ichigo drew in a sharp breath. She knew? "We're not on Earth anymore, are we, Ichigo?"
Sakura sat up now and stared at her bewildered daughter for a moment.
"Cherry-san, told me," Sakura confessed and then she remembered something and her eyes whipped around at all of the faces until she found him. She struggled up to her feet and threw a deadly finger at Kisshu. She was using the hand that everyone seemed to have forgotten was covered in her own blood from where she had pounded the ground in frustration, "You!"
Kisshu glanced at Ichigo who had also risen from the ground now. They exchange confused expressions before both turning back to the woman.
"You are a danger! You stay away from us! I know your name now, Kisshu!" Sakura spat, "How dare you come to Earth, attack everyone and then hang around my daughter when she's been taken here!"
"Wait, Mum!" Ichigo said but Sakura wasn't listening anymore.
"I saw what you and those other two did! I was there! I remember! Those Mew Mew girls were getting so weak towards the end, sure we won back our land from your deranged leader, that's what the report said anyway, but you almost killed them!" She screeched, "I'm not having a murderer around my daughter!"
"Mum, he's not a murderer!" Ichigo cried jumping inbetween her love and her mother, "Mum, Kisshu is my friend."
"And I would never hurt Ichigo," Kisshu added, "In the end, I never even tried to hurt the Mews, to be honest."
Sakura's face screwed up and she shouted at him fiercely, "Liar!"
"No, he's not!" Ichigo screamed back at her mother. After a moment she sighed and explained, "I should know, Mum. I was there as well."
"Honey, we were all there," Sakura pointed out. She didn't mean the three of them and the crowd around them, she meant Tokyo, of course.
But Ichigo shook her head, "No, Mum. I was at the heart of final battle...I'm Mew Ichigo."
"What? B-but... then all those times they attacked. They were attacking you - fighting you," Sakura said, working everything out aloud.
"Yes," Ichigo nodded.
"And he's your friend? That's more reason for him to stay away from you!" Sakura shrieked.
"No!" Ichigo called, " Look, Kisshu, never hurt me...that much. He was just trying to save his people. We found it hard to understand at first, Mum, but...think of the situation flipped. If our planet was dying and we had the technology to...wouldn't you want to go out and find somewhere safe?" Ichigo then walked over to stand beside Kisshu and took his hand in hers. She then pulled him along with her toward her mother, "Mum, I died the day of the final battle...but I was able to regain my life. I would have died a lot sooner which would have destroyed any chance I had of returning. But Kisshu saved me, he died for me. You can't tell me to stay away from the guy that saved my life, saying that he's going to kill me. He won't."
Ichigo let go of Kisshu's hand when he was face to face with Sakura. Ichigo stood to the side of them but between them and she gently took her mother's right hand and Kisshu's left. She slowly, so as not to scare her mother anymore, placed Sakura's hand in Kisshu's and then cupped their linked hands with both of hers.
"I don't want my mother fighting with the one I love," Ichigo said quietly staring at their hands. It was loud enough to hear though making Sakura gasp and quickly stare up at Kisshu wide eyed for a moment.
After another moment Ichigo looked up to Kisshu too and Sakura watched as the two of them looked at each other. She saw the love that they held in that gaze and she felt like crying all over again. Ichigo and Kisshu then turned their gaze to her.
"Please, Mum," Ichigo whispered.
Sakura felt her head nod before she even realised what she was saying, "Yes...alright, Ichigo...alright. I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."
Sakura broke down in tears again and Ichigo threw her arm around her again crying also, "Me too, Mum. I'm so sorry I scared you. I really am!"
The crowd started to applaud the emotional scene and Sakura's cheeks flared from embarrassment, as if she had only just realised their presence.
"Let's go and find your father, shall we?" she asked, one reason to get away from all the watchful eyes, but the main reason was to really see Shintaro and apologise for all the heartache she put him through recently.
"Okay then," Ichigo smiled and nodded. She held her mother's hand and then in the other she held Kisshu's hand.
Axel - Aw, happy ending ^^ Nya!
Hazzard - Ending? Who said anything about the ending? I'm not finished yet ;)
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